IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

COMPARISON OF GLASS FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE &

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE WITH GLASS FIBER REINFORCEMENT
Shrikant Harle1, Sarang Dhawade2
1, 2

Department of Civil Engineering, Ram Meghe College of Engineering, Amravati (M.S.)

Abstract
In the world most commonly used as well as durable material is concrete. In the field of concrete technology, glass fiber
reinforced concrete (GFRC) is the recently introduced material. GFRC has many advantages such as light weight material, steel
reinforcement corrosion free and structural deterioration free. So, these are the reason the researchers all over the globe are
attempting to develop high performance concrete with the use of glass fibers as well as admixtures. While the combination of fly
ash, alkaline liquids, fine and coarse aggregate and glass fibers resulted in the product called as Glass Fiber Reinforced
Geopolymer Concrete (GFRGC). This product has many advantages such as high early strength, corrosion and sulphate
resistance and low shrinkage. The present work has compared the compressive strength, split tensile strength and flexural
strength for GFRC and GFRGC. From this comparison it is observed that except for the flexural strength the normal concrete
with the addition of glass fibers shown good results as compared to the geopolymer concrete with the addition of glass fibers. This
work is only an accumulation of information about GFRC and the research work which is already carried out by other
researchers.

Key Words: GFRC, GC, Geopolymer Concrete, Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete, Glass Fiber Reinforcement
--------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------1. INTRODUCTION
The production rate of concrete as well as the growth rate of
infrastructure highlight and reflect the economic strength
and the degree of civilization. It is well known that concrete
is one of the most far used construction material all over the
globe [4]. Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) becomes an
important material all over the globe in the production of
concrete which acts its binder to bind all the aggregate
together. However, the utilization of cement causes
pollution to the environment and reduction of raw material.
The manufacturing of OPC requires the burning of large
quantities of fuel as well as decomposition of limestone,
which has resulted in significant amount emissions of CO 2
[5].
The performance concrete is usually determined by its
strength and durability. By reducing the water content,
increasing the binder and aggregate content, using a well
graded aggregate and using a good curing method and better
compaction can be resulted in good quality of concrete.
Further it was observed that the strength & durability of
concrete are influenced by the amount of size and type of
pores [6].

2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The experimental investigation [1] was carried out on the
alkali resistant (AR) glass fibers and studied the effect on
compressive, tensile strength, split tensile and flexural
strength on M20, M30, M40 and M50 grades of concrete.
From the experimental results it was observed that
percentage increase of compressive strength of various

concrete grades of glass fiber concrete mixes compared with

28 days compressive strength to be from 20 to 25%. As well
as reduction in bleeding observed by addition of glass fibers
in the glass fiber concrete mixes.
Concrete is the most widely used construction material all
over the world and has very good as well as wide properties
like high compressive strength, stiffness and durability
under usual environmental factors. Normally reinforcement
consists of continuous deformed steel bars or pre-stressing
tendons. The study [2] was carried out and it was observed
that strength and durability of concrete can be changed by
making appropriate changes in its ingredients like
cementitious material, aggregate and water by adding some
special ingredients. Therefore concrete can be considered as
a very suitable material for a wide range of application.
The experimental study [3] was conducted to study the
mechanical properties of Geo Polymer Cement Concrete
(GPCC) which contained 90% fly ash, 10% OPC, alkaline
liquids as well as glass fibers in the percentage of 0.01%,
0.02% and 0.03% by volume of concrete and the ratio of
alkaline liquid to fly ash was 0.4. The experiment included
replacement of 10% of fly ash by OPC in the mix resulted in
an enhanced 73% compressive strength, 128% split tensile
strength and 17% flexural strength as compared to GPC
mix. Also the replacement of 10% fly ash by OPC in the
GPC mix eliminates delay in setting time and necessity of
heat curing to gain strength which resulted in GPCC mix.
The study [9] was made to determine the mechanical
properties of Geopolymer concrete composites (GPCC),
which contains fly ash, alkaline liquids and glass fibers. The

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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

ratio for alkaline liquids to fly ash was fixed as 0.4 and in
the experiment they replaced 100% ordinary Portland
cement with fly ash. The addition of glass fibers made to the
mix with 0.01%, 0.02% and 0.03%. From the experiments
performed it was observed that the geopolymer concrete
composite had relatively higher strength in one day short
curing time than the geopolymer concrete and ordinary
Portland cement.

Author

Yogesh murthy, et al
(2012)

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

3. RESULTS AND COMPARISON

The comparison is done for adding varying amount of glass
fibers in normal concrete and geopolymer concrete with
zero percent fiber with the same material. The results of the
compressive strength, flexural strength and split tensile
strength are as presented in the following table.

Table 1: Comparison of Compressive strength

types of concrete
grade of
no of days
concrete

Normal Concrete with waste

glass fiber (replacement of
aggregate)
Normal Concrete with AR glass
fiber (addition)
Geopolymer Concrete (100%
replacement of OPC)

M30

28

M30

28

-----

28

K. Vijay, et al (2012)

Geopolymer Concrete (100%

replacement of OPC)

-----

28

Author

types of concrete

Chandramouli K, et al
(2010)
Satish Kumar, et al
(2012)

Table 2: Comparison of Flexural strength

grade of
no of days
concrete

compressive strength
with gf
(MPa)
38.22 (0.5 %)

wihtout gf
(MPa)
38

48.56 (0.03
%)
27.58
(0.03%)

41.5

25.87
(0.03%)

28.49

Flexural strength

M30

28

Chandramouli K, et al
(2010)

Normal Concrete with waste

glass fiber (replacement of
aggregate)
Normal Concrete with AR glass
fiber (addition)

with gf
(MPa)
4.5 (0.5 %)

M30

28

4.78 (0.03 %)

-----

28

K. Vijay, et al (2012)

Geopolymer Concrete (100%

replacement of OPC)

Yogesh murthy, et al
(2012)

Author

Chandramouli K, et al
(2010)
Satish Kumar, et al
(2012)
K. Vijay, et al (2012)

5.31 (0.03 %)

Table 3: Comparison of Split Tensile strength

types of concrete
grade of concrete
no of days

Normal Concrete with AR glass

fiber (addition)
Geopolymer Concrete (100%
replacement of OPC)

M20

28

------

28

Geopolymer Concrete (100%

replacement of OPC)

------

28

24.26

wihtout gf
(MPa)
4.1

4.12

5.4

Split Tensile strength

with gf
(MPa)
4.2 (0.03%)

wihtout gf
(MPa)
3.62

2.33 (0.03%)

1.93

1.83 (0.03%)

3.02

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IJRET: International Journal of Research in Engineering and Technology

4. CONCLUSION
From the above results and comparison following point are
observed:
The compressive strength is found to be much
more for normal concrete with the addition of glass
fibers as compared to the geopolymer concrete with
the addition of glass fibers.
The flexural strength for geopolymer concrete with
the addition of glass fibers found to be more as
compared to the normal concrete with the addition
of glass fibers.
Split tensile strength is found to be more for normal
concrete with the addition of glass fibers as
compared to the geopolymer concrete with the
addition of glass fibers.

eISSN: 2319-1163 | pISSN: 2321-7308

[10]. Yogesh Iyer Murthy, Apporv Sharda and Gourav Jain

(2012), Performance of glass fiber reinforced concrete,
International journal of engineering and innovative
technology, vol 1, Issue 6.

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